These included Oman Sail who were represented by Greenhalgh, best known for his role as skipper of Extreme 40 Oman Air plus Ali Al Belushi, Nasser Al Mashari, bowman on The Wave, Muscat and Phil Robertson, an Extreme 40 sailor from New Zealand. Racing took place in J/70 one design boats over three days (45 races) in front of Denmark’s iconic ‘Little Mermaid’, the 100 year –old bronze statue on a rock by the waterside at the Langelinie promenade in Copenhagen. It was hosted by the national German Sailing League (Segel-Bundesliga), the Danish Sailing League (Sejlsportsligaen) and the Royal Danish Yacht Club.
“This was a superb event for us as a team, for Oman Sail and for sailing as a sport,” said Greenhalgh, who last week won the inaugural Land Rover Extreme 40 exhibition event at Barcolana 46, the largest regatta in Europe held in the Adriatic city of Trieste. “We all know how competitive sailors become when it is a club on club contest and this was a great example of that format so we were delighted to get on the podium. It was also great fun and raising all that money for charity added another dimension which made it all the more worthwhile.”
Kongelig Dansk Yachtklub emerged as winner of the first Robbe & Berking Sailing Champions League trophy with Italy in second.
This podium win comes on the heels of a successful participation by Oman Sail’s youngsters in the 2014 International Optimist Dinghy Association (IODA) African Championships, held last week in Morocco. The championships saw six youngsters representing four different sailing schools from across Oman achieve a silver medal in the team racing, setting a new benchmark for Oman Sail’s Omantel Youth Programme co-sponsored by Oman Shipping Company.
While the focus in Copenhagen was on racing, the energy was directed at fund raising since the Sailing Champions League was also established as a charity event to draw attention to the World Childhood Foundation. Sponsored by SAP, the Danish software giant, an online campaign was launched to encourage fans to vote for their club and donate five Euros for each vote which attracted a total of 25,000 euros (12,3393 OMR).
